I might watch my Send + Receive DVD later, the film that has artists like Taylor Deupree, David Grubbs and Sawako on. I no longer have the live set DVD that came with it from various artists, wonder where that went.

Up at 10.
Re-listened to After The Thought CD I bought from the great night last night.
Watched Mongrels Series 1 DVD 1 for 2 episodes in the afternoon.
Ate chicken and prawn paella with garden peas and salad for lunch.
Travelled home to Oxfordshire with my Dad.
Heated up remaining Thai Green Chicken Curry and Rice from their meal the night before.
Found the tablets done up by the company weren't 25mg and 50mg as I requested; they were 50mg and 100mg.
Replied to Johnny Beverton at Echo Empire about new promos.
Was sent 8 hand-picked playlists by Spotify staff.
Petted Mutley.
Downloaded 5 exclsuive After The Thought bonus tracks.
Upgraded weakest base to LV 21 on C&C, ranked 1782

"We Lived In A Garden's Heart" re-viewed twice by someone on SubVersion, and all Bat For Lashes videos coming up in "Watch again" section of my YouTube once again.

Listened to Will Gregory on Frome FM's 'Different Sounds' show, broadcast at 9PM, three times over dinner with parents.
Received 2 CDs for my collection from my sister and her collection - Mono's "Flag Fluttered" and Yndi Halda's "S/T". And I shall keep them
Received Marks And Spencer Favourites Mini Chocolates as a treat, so didn't drink any wine that night; my sister and her gf got pig and dinosaur chocolates.
Had Chicken Dopiaza with Nan for dinner. Note: Tandoori spice powder is less powerful and rich than curry spice powder.

14.09.14

Listened to Bat For Lashes - Fur And Gold LP in a new light, then another new light, and posted some comments on the Bat Lovers page
Read Futurepast Zine issue 7 in an hour, posted a thread on Subvert with snippets of text
Set table for fryup - egg, 2 rashes bacon, mushrooms and grilled tomatoes
Had a nice debate about changing perceptions and not looking down on change, it being a temporal thing
Monitored Mutley around garden when parents were out
Got washing out, put it out
Listened to Jan Amit - Around And Above LP preview on the Night Tracks blog, recommended in Futurepast - https://soundcloud.com/black-hymn-record...ound-above
Made a 'Jon' folder on my Advent OS for everything he posts that I download or buy, or that he sends me

A disintegrating-down-a-droney-chasm modulated note is the first thing heard. This depressed note gets augmented by washes of delayed water sounds, which then proceed to drop out in favour of microtonal variations. They return, again, then one looks at the title: "Lamptest". Seemingly fitting an electrical surge put to music. The slow, interrupted build careens into synthesiser diopsy. This trend befits the whole album.

Anjou is the self-titled project by Robert Donne and Mark Nelson of ambient electronica stalwarts Labradford. Nelson formed Labradford in the early 90s and Pan American is his lauded-by-its-scene solo project. Donne released an LP with Adam Wiltzie of Stars Of The Lid among other fine achievements, and presents part of the smoky resonances, propelled by guest percussion from Steven Hess (Fennesz, Pan American collaborations et al). "Sighting", second track on the Anjou LP, melds all the aforementioned players' skills into a portentous melange laden with doomy electronic drones.

"Specimen Question" is where the record begins to lighten up and implant saviour, transcendental textures that introspect on themselves and then gently erupt into medium strength blasts. The record is ultimately weighted (and weighed down) by its melancholy, which means it becomes incidental - but not forgettable - to your working environment. It's on the Kranky label, after all, and slots in nicely with their catch-all style, One Armed Bandit yearning for change mantra. The clattering and Earth's-inner-crust-scraping of drums against drones on "Readings" almost sounds like it was recorded in the depths of the planet.

"Anjou" works best as an exercise in deconstructing a centrepiece and overlaying various timbres. This creates a fragmentary and quizzical counterpoint dynamic to the music, such as the Jesu-meets-Grouper infra-violence of "Inclosed", or the distanced BJ Nilsen-isms of "Fieldwork". This reshaping of experimental sonic art touchstones places the listener in a tranquilised aural infrastructure based on tone, less on rhythm, and more frenetically, pulse. As a result it's a beneficial effort that adds notable integers to the global ambient music back catalogue.

Nippy and gnawing drum patterns from Valentina Magaletti rotate against factory noise that sounds like a printer processing in a one shot sample. Tom Relleen's bass guitar prods the soundscape with a screeching melody that is somnambulated by dub echoes from the percussion. This first track on "Futura Grotesk", coming out of the reliable Hands In The Dark Records (Robedoor, Saaad etc) shares a similar gentrified mood to Bill Withers' "Use Me" before shuddering to a close like an interlude stripped of a pair of scales to weigh the next move.

"Long Term Green" as piece two introduces an undulating organ that plays a gently buzzing tune, with a prickly percussive shell on top. The playing field echoes much of krautrock pioneers Can before they went "Future Days" past time. "Malintesi" ribbets its bass guitar like a frog with hiccups, plugged into a phaser machine. The eastern synthesisers and mbira contrast well against the militant, turgid drum arrangement, and the fade-out happens at a time where conundrums are thrown into question just as drums rabbit against the fusion con. Fusion arises as a breakthrough proper on the album's title track, a tiny speckle of higher octave bass guitar
greeted by low end grunt and waterfall-as-whole rolls. Vibes round off this side of the record with a peaceful, seemingly necessary proliferation of the experimentation that preceded.

Side M (the previous titled T) grasps conglomerate synth folly and fullsome FX on "Taste The Indifference", a more sinister mood bequeathing anything else on the release. Comparisons to Grumbling Fur are suggestive, for Tomaga share the disgruntled dissolution of song forms and genres that this work occupies. However they differ in their indifference with a pleasing rhythm to and fro, slide into guitar and ricochet sound in collage like an arch conceptualist. There may be two of them in Tomaga, and this LP feels a transfusion of vital organs from both just as much as the organ, in this record amongst other instruments, is vital to the success. "Mountain Opener" takes all this reviewer's observations with a percussion dirge dipping into a reservoir of droney bass synth. This plentiful quenching of thirst on this tempo-less section provides a needed respite from the bass guitar nudges and even though they return minutes after, they set up and purify an altogether gloomy amalgam that rises in mood on the finale, "Days Like They Were Before". It's quite like Tortoise and likeable in bass guitar to Ninja Tune's Bonobo, showing Tomaga to be no one trick stallion, but by the evidence of this stuff, nowhere near pony either.

Recorded that soft pad and percussion piece from the Casio CTK session last week, then recorded a one take piano improvisation over it, then unplugged the audio interface and let rip on the keys for 20 minutes with a solo piano piece of that length.

Having 2 EPs released previously on Warp records, Babe Rainbow's "Falling Apart" opus is something of a multicolour crush. "Dub Music" takes the foundation of dub echo onto ambient synthesiser, before fading out with a percussive pop that adjoins the smeared bass guitar and further drum bursts, lurching along in heart-start-stopping fashion like a romantic with butterflies. The title track reaches to The Human League for synthesis inspiration, nicely tailing off pioneering 80s influences, before ushering in a nasally lead synth to try and keep the scattered beats together. Cameron Reed, aka Babe Rainbow's coherence-wringing when all else fails mindset would seem influenced by guest time in touring band How To Dress Well – it adapts timely procedure and doesn't let any step stumble too far. There are echoes of Pilote and Dauwd in the layers and textures, but Babe Rainbow is more brazenly bombastic, like on "Swept Stairs", where a trolley of percussion trundles down the stairwell. Some things may fall apart, but "Falling Apart" here is stable enough to reward.

Blevin Blectum, the alias of Bevin Kelley, multiplies a musical lineage so it becomes both spiky and indistinguishable, like black breath in a darkened room. Fed of the same breezes as breakcore and musique concrete, the profound pre-listen emptiness getting flat-pack furniture swiftly within your ears - ricocheting drill 'n' bass rhythms tilt like the edges of a pinball machine against an inner game of sample-heavy crush; while 4/4 and 3/4 techno and jungle tropes tussle for space, all encapsulated on SoundCloud on the Liveondublab set from 2012. The central fertilizer of the material is hyperactively looped dustbin drums that intone as either harsh or coy. At 53 minutes a rollercoaster supersoaker of percussion builds up and is guided by cathartic warbling melody. The effect is akin to falling in a bog of gunge only to find the experience is actually a lot more satisfying than that might sound. The best mixtape stroke collage I've heard all year.

Photek's "Ni Ten Ichi Ryu" on steroids, the giddy, hyper-adrenalin personality of "Paracosm" stares at its own shadow like a schizophrenic. Pummelling yet controlled-to-grid beats trespass over diseased female vocals, shrieks and liquid samples, while an automaton bassline deposits subs on the ticket line. "Yin Dub" has a partially operatic, wailing female soprano tumbling through crevices of the drumwork. More rolling overall and gaining plus points for some rough-hewn synthesiser, the normally tired-by-now eastern sounds Fanu used to use are given a fresh, exciting lease of life. The release comes out on the small-output Lightless, Fanu's own imprint, this being it's sixth vinyl.

A bubbled-wrapped candour abounds CFCF's 2012 album "Exercises", where air pockets of synth electronics greet glistening arpeggio lines that swerve through the headroom like a motorcyclist slipstreaming lorries. There are some lovely chord progressions to be had in "Exercise 6 (December)", and more Frahm-y piano playing on opener "Exercise 1 (Entry)", while "Exercise 5 (September)" places attractive David Sylvian-esque vocals on the soundscape. The notes are played in svelte clusters that exude a playful lust and slight indecision of touch. The electronics overlaid on most tracks push the record into electronica territory – indeed I discovered this album on a Spotify (now free to download) electronica playlist. Jean Michel Jarre is a notable comparison, since these pieces plant the same kind of magpie scenery that surrounds the synthesiser music of the contemporary era. This is a fine little album that protrudes and improves your working or lounging environment.

Played Novation for 15 minutes, made a new patch (82), and I can go back to hearing the music when in formlessness.
Food: 2 apples, mackerel, cheese & 2 rivetas (3 syns), tomatoes, 1 brunch bar (3 syns), coffee. Lasagne tonight (12).
Took 50mg Chlorpromazine tablet when up at 9, looked after dog while getting incredibly sleepy, fed him, didn't sleep.
Revitalised downer with Lone's "Reality Testing" album, corrected 2 guesses on the record collection quiz I attend.
Monged out in front of the telly watching Deal Or No Deal. Now waiting for Dad to come in. Better than online loneliness.

After The Thought – I Am No Different + Bonus Tracks (Bear On A Bicycle)
Out Now

The five main tracks that make up "I Am No Different" plunder a void left by The KLF and wring a more polished wonder out of german outfit Drexciya. The fourth piece also nods to Giorgio Moroder's esteemed synthesiser classic "The Chase", with livewire synthesis that still stays coherent, an electric eel caught in an electronica net. So the trawl is fairly large for comparison, but After The Thought is after the influence, in a sense. The production, certainly, is hyper-modern, the musician behind it named Matt using a Novation Launchpad and Ableton with bass guitar to tie together a 30 minute set of 5 songs at The Cellar, Oxford on 11th September to an appreciative audience, one of those being me, where I bought this cd. Included in the inlay was a download code for 5 bonus tracks from Bandcamp. I am yet to listen to these and will leave judgement of otherwise good material up to you.

A sepia-tinted, gargling drone starts "Stellar" out. "Raw Energy" as an EP is both resonant in titular incantation and energetic fervour – take the "Arpos Session" Mix of the title cut. It's populated by bleepy ambient techno enchantments and distant, clandestine pad sweeps. These techniques coalesce together like moving icebergs on an Arctic sea. The music is cold and alien and only warmed up by its analogue gear usage. This maps a humane perspective onto the music like a personality other than yourself can do when you look at your own thoughts from another angle – in the eyes of an 'other'.

Foraging for patterns beyond the identikit, Kasket's Apollo EP was born out of synthesised sketches and guest vocals from Danny Jaqq. These sample-based concoctions were traded back and forth between conduits and the short-form (5 track) result is big room, bubble textures in the synths, and nothing sounds emotively short-lived. With standout "We Heart London" emblematising witty spoken word tales encroaching "we all love London right?" while scatter-gunning various unfortunate circumstances (dancers ending up in strip clubs, eating processed meat, "soldiers ending up homeless") to project a different spin on the city-bigup Londoners do to their own city quite often, the trajectory is a light from afar, the drums maneuvering the work towards Kasket's Massive Attack influence, with the half-speed d&b rhythms jolting off dubstep like a thunderbolt.

What's most impressive is the chucking out of the ideological barometer of "acceptable" to tread further than what rap has done to trap, dubstep's much-publicised offshoot. Kasket revolves his shimmering drumwork to protrude as more than novelty. "I'm just here to bring the honesty", perhaps, as Danny Jaqq speaks on "Where's My Mind At", and that honesty of production is rewarding, with an insight into Jaqq's mind and Kasket's musical treasures of influence. "Wave Multiplier" ripples its synth to a torch carrier and then proceeds to walk its path with all the righteousness of a feminist Slut Walk (the most popularising feminist move since Suffragette-ism). These pieces are clean however, and yet feminine, unwrapping a soft centre and mouthwash-cleansed with masculine teeth, seemingly where Kasket has cut his own in London.

looked out for mutley around garden and home
looked for tracks on a checklist
made several guesses on the dumbass record collection quiz, including an lp to revisit: indignant senility - plays wagner
listened to fluid radio review 126 material: ormonde - cartographer, first sent to me during mental hospital in 2012
exported "statto's song" and sent it (very early version)

- Travelled back from Oxford with a family friend, gave me a big hug, said he had a great time
- Destroyed my first LV 25 Camp on Command And Conquer: Tiberium Alliances, ranked 1714 World. Researched Juggernaut.
- Produced some "Pathological Darkness"-esque STS chords in MULAB 3.2. I would consider upgrading to UL and level 6
of the software, but I only use it for in-house synth arrangements at the moment, and I like the limit of 8 tracks.
- Napped with girlfriend, as I strangely have a hangover from drinking foreseeably less than 3 pints last night.
I think someone put something in my cocktail.
- Received form back from WODC yesterday saying that I can share a house with 5 people, but I put down for just me.
- "We Lived In A Garden's Heart" viewed once by someone.
- 95% Pork & Cumberland Sausages, boiled potatoes with Onion Chutney, green beans for tea. Syns 8 in day from red wine.
- Tuned in to Future Sequence's Siavash Amini show on Mixlr for his new album preview.
- Listened to AFX's released "Syro" all the way through on YouTube, liked it.

- Recorded a slow cello and Steinway piano improvisation, playing two instruments at the same time on my keyboard:
lower notes the grand piano, higher notes the cello mixed with piano. Named the track "Artemis' Song" and sent to Jon.

Listening to 09-07-14 Next Phase Radio Show by Infest on MixCloud. Quite good. Liking the lower tempo at 54 minutes.

Sent a few emails, one to a cousin, one to Michael @ Future Sequence concerning a possible review of Siavash Amini's new LP, and cleared all emails out of the 15MOF account inbox. I never get any in there any more, although the series has got the most outside interaction this year on SC, with 2 house/techno mini sets.

its ok. I'm happy actually. relieved, as I'm sure he would have been to have ended the repeated hospital stays since this past June. this summer has been a struggle with ups & downs over different diagnosis, and what the outcome would be. it was either illness, or deciding when to put him in a senior's home, it just wasn't smart to keep him at home. Its been an interesting year, or so for my grandparents. change happens, old age ensues if you live long enough to experience it right? he was 89.

respects gramps! thanks for everything.

dude had 9 kids. I have a huge extended family, with all the aunt & uncles' in laws, 3 generations of grandchildren (and counting). if anything, his passing is a way for his own 9 kids to learn how to deal with each other again. its only just begun. they have to learn new tricks right? its not easy, but that's family right? I wish them well, in sorting things out amongst themselves.

I listened to Synkro last nite before I went to bed, and thought about my grandpa. Little did I know, a couple hours later after I fell asleep, he would have vacated this level of life. I feel happy for him. he did GREAT! We owe him everything.